I really liked Lyla, the character was never the most interesting, but I always felt soaps needed characters in that mold to ground them a bit. And as good as I thought Anne Sward was I do think she was too young for the role, I always had a very hard time buying Lyla as a contemporary of John, Bob, and Kim, and I remember Margo constantly referring to her as "Mama" during their scenes which I always suspected had something to do with them looking more like sisters age wise.
I loved the Marland years in general though, and I never really enjoyed any of the characters brought in after that (except Maybe Damian), I still watched sporadically for Susan, Lucinda, Kirk and John though.